Welcome to Giants of the Faith, the podcast that explores the lives and legacies of influential Christians throughout history. My name is Robert Daniels I’m the host of this show, and today we’re going to talk about Horatio Spafford, the author of the famous hymn “It Is Well With My Soul”. As we'll see, Spafford went off the rails in his later life and, so, he's relegated to a Bonus Episode as we wind down are focus on the great hymn writers. This is probably going to stand as the longest episode in season 4 and I had to trim a lot of crazy stuff from it just to keep the episode to a reasonable length. So if you are interested go check out the source articles, particularly Leben, that I've linked in the show notes.
Horatio Spafford was born on October 20, 1828, in Troy, New York, to a prominent family. He became a successful lawyer and a Presbyterian church elder in Chicago. Horatio and Anna Larsen met at a Sunday School lecture Spafford gave in 1857. Horatio was 29 and Anna was only 16 but four years later the two were wed. The couple had five children: four daughters and one son.
Spafford was a friend and supporter of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, and he also had some contact with John Nelson Darby, the founder of dispensationalism. I'm no fan of Darby and his Left Behind eschatology but we'll likely feature him in an upcoming episode.
Spafford was an upright man and he seemed to hold orthodox Christian beliefs until two major tragedies struck his life.
The first tragedy was the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed most of his real estate investments and left him financially ruined. The second tragedy was even more devastating. In 1873, he planned to take his family on a trip to Europe to join Moody’s evangelistic campaigns. However, he had to stay behind because of some business issues. He sent his wife and four daughters ahead on a steamship called Ville du Havre. On November 22, 1873, the ship collided with another vessel in the middle of the Atlantic and sank within 12 minutes. All four of his daughters drowned, while his wife survived. She sent him a telegram that read “Saved alone”.
Spafford boarded another ship to meet his grieving wife in England. As he passed near the spot where his daughters died, he wrote the words of “It Is Well With My Soul”, a hymn that expresses his trust in God’s sovereignty and grace in the midst of sorrow. And, knowing the origin of the song, the imagery of the first verse becomes more poignant:
When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul
The hymn was set to music by Philip Bliss, who named the tune after the ship that carried Spafford’s daughters, Ville du Havre. The hymn became popular among Christians and has been sung for generations. And that's the story you might hear in church. In fact, it's one my pastor told just a few months ago.
However, Spafford’s story does not end there. After the shipwreck, Anna threw herself into charitable work to both ease and avoid her pain. She worked with Moody's organizations to feed the poor, nurse the sick, and became involved in the temperance movement. And while Anna did that, Horatio stopped working and turned inward. And his inward focus led him into heresy. He became obsessed with the idea that his children might not be in heaven so he rejected limited atonement in favor of Universalism. This led him to a rejection of the existence of hell and to annihilationism. He believed that all would be saved - even Satan himself - at the end of days. This put him in conflict with his church, of course, and after a failed coup to oust his pastor he and a few others left the church. The Spafford home became a new church, called The Bride, and Spafford himself became the pastor.
The Bride became more and more charismatic in it's character. Not only did Spafford supposedly receive extra-Biblical revelations from God many of the women in his group did, as well. They were the prophetesses. These prophetesses received their missives with accompanying signs, of course. Is your nose running? Better pay attention because God is speaking. Teeth clattering? That's a sure sign of revelation. Did your eyes roll back? Katie bar the door. The Bride's members performed more flips and flops than Lebron James. At one point they sanctified a bowl of oranges - yes, the fruit - as proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
As the Spafford's savings dwindled toward nothing Horatio believed he received a long-awaited call from God to go to Jerusalem. So in 1881, with their two new daughters in tow and with the equivalent of $2 million debt, the Spaffords boarded a ship with 14 other true believers and headed for the holy land. They called themselves “the Overcomers”. They believed that they were living in the end times (thanks Darby) and that they had a special mission from God to prepare for Christ’s return.
The group spent many days picnicking on the Mount of Olives - waiting for Jesus to return. They wanted to be the first to offer Christ food and drink when he returned. And by doing this they hoped to get the best jobs in Christ's new millennial reign. After a while of waiting the group rented a home and setup a new base of operations called the American Colony. The Colony was nothing if not ecumenical. They welcomed Christians, Jews, and Muslims to worship together and share in prayer despite the obvious theological differences between the groups.
Spafford claimed to have visions and revelations from God, and he even declared himself to be the second Messiah. He went by the title, The Branch. He excommunicated himself from his former Presbyterian church and rejected any criticism or correction from other Christians. Anna became The Bride and began to assume control over the group's finances and worked hard to ensure that wealthy widow Amelia Gould and John and Mary Whiting, a young couple with a sizeable inheritance, remained committed to the cause. Since members had to give over all of their possessions there was quite a lot of money flowing around.
But just as money came in to the organization money quickly went out. One group of Yemeni Jews wanted to return to their homeland but the Jews occupying it rejected them. Spafford, believing them to be the lost tribe of Gad, spent the groups money supporting these Gadites. Deuteronomy 33:20 says, "Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain!" so Spafford, clearly a careful interpreter of scripture, believed that he could hurry along the Second Coming by supporting this lost tribe.
Things turned sour for the colony. Members began to die or get sick and that just wasn't supposed to happen. To the Spaffords this was proof that sin had entered their group. They declared that marriage was a hindrance to the return of Jesus and so had the group commit to celibacy and melt down their wedding rings. This move was spearheaded by Anna and I assume this was just another cash-grab and that they sold off the gold but I couldn't find any supporting documentation for that.
Horatio began spending time with a woman outside of the Colony's ranks. This friendship bloomed, likely into adultery, as Anna and Horatio grew apart. By this time Anna had almost total control of the group. Because of Horatio's dalliance Anna had him sentenced to 44 days of shunning. The groups was not to speak to him or have any sort of contact with him. Horatio began to wither and it became clear that he would not survive the ordeal. Rather than call a doctor Anna said she would dance before the Lord. She went onto the patio and danced wildly but to no avail. Horatio died on September 25, 1888.
So what can we learn from Horatio Spafford’s life? On one hand, we can admire his faith and courage in facing unimaginable losses and writing a hymn that has comforted many people in times of trouble. On the other hand, we can also see how he went astray from biblical truth and became deceived by false teachings and delusions. His story reminds us of the importance of holding fast to sound doctrine and testing everything by Scripture. It also warns us of the dangers of pride and isolation from other believers who can help us grow in grace and knowledge.
As we sing “It Is Well With My Soul”, let us remember both the beauty and the tragedy of Horatio Spafford’s life. And let us pray that he will keep us faithful to his word.
Thank you for listening to Giants of the Faith. Until next time, God bless.
RESOURCES
Bethel Church Ripon: https://www.bethelripon.com/life-stories/horatio-gates-spafford
Covenant Protestant Reformed Church: https://cprc.co.uk/articles/spafford/
Isabellaalden.com: https://isabellaalden.com/2017/08/28/horatio-spaffords-second-chapter/
Leben: https://leben.us/shipwreck-american-colony/